1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for safe driving of a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for preventing collision of a vehicle with another vehicle running on an adjacent carriageway.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Conventional methods of preventing collision of a vehicle include a method of preventing collision of a vehicle with another vehicle running on an adjacent carriageway when a user's vehicle is going to change into the adjacent carriageway. This method includes calculating a relative position and relative speed between the user's vehicle and the other vehicle running on the adjacent carriageway using front and rear radars, and controlling the user's vehicle to prevent collision thereof. While this method has an advantage of precisely measuring a relative distance from the other vehicle using a radar, since only distance information with the other vehicle is used without any information on moving directions of the user's vehicle and the other vehicle, it is insufficient to prevent collision of the user's vehicle with the other vehicle when changing lanes.
In addition, since this method uses only the relative distance and relative speed to the other vehicle, it is difficult to determine collision possibility when the vehicle alternately runs on straight and curved lanes. Further, since it is difficult to accurately discriminate a passing vehicle from running vehicles on the adjacent carriageways, it is also difficult to determine possibility of collision with the vehicles.
Therefore, in order to solve this problem, a method of employing sensors that can recognize carriageway information, running information, and running speed of the vehicle, has been developed. However, this method uses a large number of sensors to make a signal processing time longer and increase probability of errors.
Meanwhile, there is provided a method of installing a plurality of cameras at front and rear parts of a vehicle at predetermined intervals, extracting an image of a lane from images photographed by the plurality of cameras, detecting a lane image pattern on a road depending on movement of the vehicle, and outputting an alarm sound or message or reducing a running speed when it is detected that the vehicle has left a lane on the basis of the lane image pattern so that a driver can drive his/her vehicle more safely.
However, this method must use numerous complex mathematical functions to extract a curved lane or predict the curved lane. Even when the complex mathematical functions are used, a signal processing time and probability of errors may be increased.
As described above, since the conventional methods for preventing collision of a vehicle must use numerous sensors and complex mathematical functions, a signal processing time and probability of errors may be increased. That is, the conventional methods are not effective in preventing collision of a vehicle.
Therefore, a method of effectively preventing collision of a vehicle in a simple manner is required.